At times, the source of a patient's back pain may not be clear. Among possible causes for the pain are disease, degradation, or injury of the spinal disc or the associated facet joints. Spinal disc arthroplasty is one way of treating spinal joints to reduce pain while preserving motion within the joint. Alternative treatments focus on the facet joints, which may be removed and replaced with prosthetic devices. Currently, few options exist for treating the total spinal joint, including the spinal disc and the associated facet joints. Because of their size, existing disc arthroplasty devices often involve anterior surgical approaches. Besides being highly invasive, an anterior surgical approach does not allow the surgeon to easily access and repair or replace ailing facet joints. Therefore, a motion preserving joint replacement system is needed that treats the total spinal joint by replacing all or part of the function of both the spinal disc and the associated facet joints using less invasive procedures.